Just as Qin Tai and Zhan Xiaoxiao were thinking of a way to enter Beijing, a team of people collided with their husband and wife. This group of people seems to have just left Beijing and are about to go west, and they are the team of senior officials on patrol. Because Qin Tai didn't know who the other party was, he didn't take the liberty to stop him.

In ancient times, officials had their own authority and territory, and they could not overstep their authority casually. For example, Beijing officials cannot leave Beijing casually, and local officials cannot leave their own jurisdictions at will. Even if the Beijing officials who are also in the capital, the six departments and the Yamen of Yousi cannot meddle in the affairs of other yamen, let alone overstep their responsibilities. So by the time of the Ming Dynasty, few people blocked the road to complain, because the vast majority of officials had no power to manage the case. However, Beijing officials are not absolutely not allowed to go out of Beijing, just like Qin Tai, officials can be ordered or sent by their superiors to go out on business. If the cabinet or the chief of the six ministries himself appoints an official who goes out on official business in a local area, this is called a "business trip," and it is mainly to supervise the handling of a certain special event, project, or case by the local government. If he is ordered to go out of Beijing, this is the minister of the Qincha, and he will be majestic when he sees the third level of the official. Generally speaking, in addition to doing their own errands, the ministers also have the power to inspect the localities on behalf of the emperor, and can have the authority to deal with local rebel officials who violate the law and discipline. This kind of minister is not only powerful, but also majestic, and the team will definitely hold the special banner of "Hunting on behalf of the sky".

In order to show the majesty of the Beijing officials, and also to distinguish the rank and power of the officials, the number of people in the travel team and the pomp and circumstance are very different. Coupled with the special guards and pomp of the officials themselves, this can clearly distinguish who is who. According to the rules of officialdom, the team of junior officials should avoid the ranks of big officials, otherwise it will be trespassing, and they will be reprimanded or dismissed. If you go together, the team of junior officials should be behind the big officials, and if several officials go together, they will have to travel in rank and seniority. If the other side collides, the junior official's team must die down, avoid the senior official's team on the side, and wait until the senior official's team has completely passed before they can continue to advance. There is also a rather serious practice of "noble and lowly" among Ming officials. In other words, civilian officials are much higher than military attaches of the same rank, both in terms of status and authority. By the time of Qin Tai, civil officials were at least two or even three levels higher than military officials. It means that a five-rank civil official is also an official at the prefect level, and his authority and available resources are equivalent to a garrison military attache of the fourth rank, and even a commander and military general with the rank of third-rank plus guerrilla general.

Why? The first emperor was suspicious of the generals and did not want to see the generals have too much power. Second, although there have been continuous wars at the border in these years, there have been no large-scale wars, so it can be regarded as a peaceful and prosperous era. In the era of peace and prosperity, of course, military generals are not as popular as civil officials. Thirdly, in the Ming Dynasty, people not only want to fight for power, but also are good at forming their own interest groups and excluding groups that are not their own. Although civil officials are constantly fighting among themselves, they are absolutely not allowed to come forward. After all, the fourth military attache was born in the army, he was desperate at fighting, and he was a layman in conspiracies, so the military attache was not an opponent of civilian officials.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the imperial family represented by the emperor, there were three major forces. The first is the group of founding fathers and heroes composed of military generals; the second was the group of scholars composed of literati; The third is the group of foreign relatives composed of eunuchs in the inner palace and relatives of the emperor. However, after the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang purged dissidents, the most powerful group of heroes weakened. The battle between Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen and his uncle Ming Chengzu Zhu Di further intensified the struggle between the three forces. After that, the power of the group of heroes was almost lost, and the group formed by dozens of founding heroes and their descendants almost collapsed. The heroes died and walked, and the rest no longer played a role. The meritorious group was demoted to the military general group, not only did the vast majority of the authority in their hands be reduced, but they also had no right to speak in the court. They have been reduced to lackeys and tools of the royal family and powerful ministers, and it is difficult for them to have a chance to get ahead. The Shi clan group was also weakened, either because they were killed because they stood on the wrong team, or they were used by the royal family and completely reduced to the other party's tools. However, the royal family needed these civil officials to help the imperial court manage local affairs, so it did not rush to exterminate them, which gave these noble groups a chance to revivenation. The influence of the foreign relatives group was minimal, but due to the betrayal of the eunuchs, the power was almost taken back by the emperor at that time. Since then, the power that was originally in the hands of relatives was ostensibly owned by the emperor, but in fact it has always been in the hands of the eunuchs. After these reshuffles, the power of the imperial court has changed greatly. The group of scholars represented by civil officials controls almost 50 percent of the local resources, and nearly 30 percent of the resources in the central government. The military generals group does not even have the resources of Yicheng, and has almost no right to speak and the strength to argue. The imperial family represented by the emperor has the most power and can almost influence the situation. But the power in the hands of the emperor was actually not much, and most of the power and resources were in the hands of the eunuch group. On the surface, they were the emperor's minions, managing these resources and power on behalf of the emperor, but in fact, even the emperor himself could not deprive the eunuchs of their authority. It's just that the eunuch group is attached to the imperial family represented by the emperor, so the boss of the eunuch group, that is, the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant eunuch, needs to be appointed and dismissed by the emperor himself. In this way, the eunuch group and the imperial family represented by the emperor are inextricably linked, restricting each other and relying on each other.

Because the eunuchs and the emperor supported each other, the group of scholars represented by civil officials could not compare with them under normal circumstances. In order to balance the other party, and for the power in their own hands not to be reduced. The Shizu group first made overtures to the military general group, and explained the interests to the military general group, and won the support of the military general group. So that you can fight against the other party, at least you won't suffer too much.

The reason for convincing the military generals group is very simple, whether it is a civilian official or a military general, they are all ministers of the imperial court. For the imperial court, although it was the emperor who made the decision, as early as when Qin Shi Huang established the empire, there was a great principle of "the king and the ministers rule the world together". If the emperor's authority is too great, the life of the ministers will not be easy. If the power in the hands of the relative ministers is too great, there will be powerful ministers, and the matter of "narrowing the princes and ordering the princes" will repeat itself, and there will be a change of dynasty. Although the eunuchs were not royalty, let alone emperors, they were different from the courtiers, they were the emperor's minions. In order not to let the eunuchs have too much power, in order to check and balance the eunuch group, civil and military officials must join forces. The military generals were persuaded by the Shi clan and agreed to stand on the front of the Shi clan. Unexpectedly, this matter was reported to the emperor by Jinyiwei, and the emperor at that time was furious and wanted to investigate the relevant responsible persons. As an emperor, the most worrying and taboo thing is the collusion of officials and the joint efforts of the upper and lower levels to try to empty the imperial power. In order to protect Mingzhe, the Shi clan group not only betrayed the military general group, but also gave the military general a fatal blow to the joint emperor. From then on, the military generals in the Ming Dynasty only had the power to train soldiers, and did not have the authority to mobilize troops. The power to mobilize troops rests with civilian officials at all levels, who not only have command but also control the expenditure of the army. In order to survive, for the daily expenses of the army, the generals had to grovel with the group of scholars represented by civilian officials. In order to supervise and manage the generals and civil officials, the emperor used too much control to control them. The eunuchs in the army have the authority to appoint, dismiss, and supervise the generals and soldiers, so they are called "supervising military envoys", or "supervising the army" for short. The eunuchs who supervise local officials in the local area are divided into town guard envoys, propaganda envoys, and pacification envoys according to different ranks. The town guard has the highest rank, almost as big as the governor, and is the eunuch who supervises the local feudal officials; Xuanfu envoys and local political envoys, according to the inspection envoys, and Taoist platforms are at the same level, supervising the words and deeds of the local yamen; The pacification envoy is at the same level as the governor of the local governor, and supervises the officials at the local level in the vicinity.

In a word, today's imperial court is nominally the emperor and cabinet members in charge, but in fact, it is the world of the scholar group and the eunuch group. The civil officials are the representatives of the scholar group, and the first assistant of the cabinet is the head of the hundred officials, so the cabinet members, especially the first assistant of the cabinet, represent the group of scholars and the military generals. Their opponent is the eunuch group, led by the ******** who has the title of "Old Ancestor", that is, the person whose official name is the eunuch who holds the seal of the Ming Dynasty. It can also be said that as long as the first assistant of the cabinet and the eunuch in charge of the seal of the celebrant are unified, this matter will be a certainty. If there is a disagreement, it depends on who is willing to bleed and the other side makes concessions. Otherwise, we will have to go on like this, and nothing can be done.